Bitter Gourd Stir fry (Karela fry/Kakarkaya Vepudu)

Last Updated on February 18, 2015

Growing up my mom made stuffed Bitter Gourd (BG) which i used to love. That was the only way i had eaten the bitter gourd.  After i got married i came to know the gravy bitter gourd aka Hagalkai gojju in Kannada. Both are very different recipes, but are equally tasty. My mom’s recipe uses generous amount of oil, where as later one uses good amount of jaggery.

Now a days i don’t cook BG as much, but when my neighbor gave some freshly picked BG from her vegetable garden i decided to make a simple fry which neither used too much oil nor sugar. I cooked the BG in some salted water to take out some bitterness. Then  stir fried them with onion.The sweet onion nicely compliments the bitter gourd.

• Medium Bitter gourd – 5
• Medium onion -1 (chopped small)
• Two pinches of turmeric
• Red chilly powder to taste
• Tamarind pulp- 2 tsps + 2 tsps
• Salt to taste
• Sugar/brown sugar- 1/4 th tsp

Procedure:

Cut the Bitter gourd to small circles, put some water in a pot add 1/2 tsp of salt, turmeric and 2 tsps of tamarind pulp. Add the BG pieces and cook the BG for few minutes till they become soft. Drain the BG and rinse.

Now take a big non stick pan add 2 tsps of oil and place the BG. Make sure each of them are touching the hot pan. Saute till the BG get little brown and crisp. Turn the BG and do the same way on the other side. Now remove the BG from the pan, add a tsp of oil and saute the onion till soft, then add the BG back in to the pan, followed by red chilly powder, sugar, tamarind juice and salt to taste. Mix well, cook just for couple more minutes and turn off the heat.

Serve with some hot white/brown rice.